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Spooktacular is a hit in Pembroke
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Students Against Destructive Decisions members Jessica Hammond and Kylee Coates paint Presleigh Morrisons face at Saturdays Pembroke Spooktacular at Dubois Square. - photo by Photo provided.
Staff Report
editor@bryancountynews.com
Updated: Oct 28, 2015, 10:50 PM
Published: Oct 28, 2015, 10:55 PM

A little of this plus a little of that meant a lot of smiles Saturday in Pembroke.

An estimated 400 showed up for the city’s fourth annual Pembroke Spooktacular, which got an early morning start when more than 70 runners participated in the 2015 Pembroke Spooktacular 5K/10K.

Zach Clifton, 16, was the overall winner of the 5K, fiinishing with a time of 18 minutes, 3 seconds. Wallace Isom, 44, won the 10K, finishing the 6.2-mile course through downtown Pembroke and Northside Cemetery in 42:44.

For those who prefer good barbecue to bunions, Johnnie’s Cafe owner Ron Lewis was named grand champion of the second Spooktacular BBQ Cookoff. Joann Burnsed and Adelyn Ammermon won the pumpkin-carving contest for turning a pumpkin into Cinderella’s carriage.

The day also included hayrides around Dubois Square — the epicenter of the festival — and a bounce house for kids, a pet “Spawtacular” costume contest, and booths filled with vendors selling food and arts and crafts. Nonprofit groups such as Bryan County Family Connection and Bryan County High School’s Junior ROTC and Students Against Destructive Decisions also had a presence at the festival, as did Pembroke Area Communications with its 2015 Pink Out Photo Booth.

The evening included Pembroke Fire and Rescue’s Haunted House — which continues this weekend — and an Art Center exhibit of Curt Hames’ photography. The exhibition is open through Friday.

If it seems like a full plate, it was.

Pembroke Mayor Mary Warnell said the city hopes to keep growing the event, which has thrived since its inception four years ago.

“It’s a positive event for the community — not only for family activities, but also the proceeds from the race itself will be going for the development of a fitness trail for the city of Pembroke,” she said.

Sharroll Fanslau, who heads up the city’s Downtown Development Authority, said the Spooktacular is Pembroke at its friendliest.

“The DDA is proud to host such a wonderful event,” Fanslau said. “It shows the essence of our community, offering a day of family fun and friendship.”

Sponsors ranging from Georgia Game Changers Running Company and North Bryan Chamber of Commerce to Bryan County Farm Bureau, Coastal Critter Care and Vet to Pets, played a part in making sure the Spooktacular was spectacular, Fanslau said,

“All the sponsors were wonderful, and we sincerely appreciate their support,” she said. “The festival offered something for everyone, pretty much.”

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Later yall, its been fun
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Ted O'Neil
Updated: May 23, 2018, 6:03 PM
Published: May 23, 2018, 6:05 PM

This is among the last pieces I’ll ever write for the Bryan County News.

Friday is my last day with the paper, and come June 1 I’m headed back to my native Michigan.

I moved here in 2015 from the Great Lake State due to my wife’s job. It’s amicable, but she has since moved on to a different life in a different state, and it’s time for me to do the same.

My son Thomas, an RHHS grad as of Saturday, also is headed back to Michigan to play basketball for a small school near Ann Arbor called Concordia University. My daughter, Erin, is in law school at University of Toledo. She had already begun her college volleyball career at Lourdes University in Ohio when we moved down here and had no desire to leave the Midwest.

With both of them and the rest of my family up north, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I haven’t missed winter one bit, but I’m sure I won’t miss the sand gnats, either.

Shortly after we arrived here in 2015, I got a job in communications with a certain art school in Savannah for a few short months. It was both personally and professionally toxic and I’ll leave it at that.

In March 2016 I signed on with the Bryan County News as assistant editor and I’ve loved every minute of it. My “first” newspaper career, in the late 80s and early 90s, was great. But when I left it to work in politics and later with a free-market think tank, I never pictured myself as an ink-stained wretch again.

Like they say, never say never.

During my time here at the News, I’ve covered everything that came along. That’s one big difference between working for a weekly as opposed to a daily paper. Reporters at a daily paper have a “beat” to cover. At a weekly paper like this, you cover … life. Sports, features, government meetings, crime, fundraisers, parades, festivals, successes, failures and everything in between. Oh, and hurricanes. Two of them. I’ll take a winter blizzard over that any day.

Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people. Volunteers, business owners, pastors, students, athletes, teachers, coaches, co-workers, first responders, veterans, soldiers and yes, even some politicians.

And I learned that the same adrenalin rush from covering “breaking news” that I experienced right out of college is still just as exciting nearly 30 years later.

With as much as I’ve written about the population increase and traffic problems, at least for a few short minutes my departure means there will be one less vehicle clogging up local roads. At least until I pass three or four moving vans headed this way as I get on northbound I-95.

The hub-bub over growth here can be humorous, unintentional and ironic all at once. We often get comments on our Facebook page that go something like this: “I’ve lived here for (usually less than five years) and the growth is out of control! We need a moratorium on new construction.”

It’s like people who move into phase I of “Walden Woods” subdivision after all the trees are cleared out and then complain about trees being cut down for phase II.

Bryan County will always hold a special place in my heart and I definitely plan on visiting again someday. My hope is that my boss, Jeff Whitten (one of the best I’ve ever had), will let me continue to be part of the Pembroke Mafia Football League from afar. If the Corleone family could expand to Vegas, there’s no reason the PMFL can’t expand to Michigan.

But the main reason I want to return someday is about that traffic issue. After all, I’ll need to see it with my own eyes before I’ll believe that Highway 144 actually got widened.

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